148 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxix. 



these waters, and raises tempests enoiigli to dishearten 

 the bravest amongst lis,' * 



The lake derives its name from this remarkable emi- 

 nence, Mista-assinni, signifying ' Great Stone,' and tlie 

 Indians are named the Mistassins or Mistassinni Indians, 

 probably from the worship which they pay to this rock, 

 or from the stony nature of the comitry they inhabit. 

 The Cree word Assinni recalls at once the name of a 

 river some thousand miles west, the Assinni-boine, and 

 of a powerful prairie tribe called Assinniboines, or 

 Stonys by the half-breeds. 



In Michaux's manuscript notes the following description 

 of the Mistassinni coimtry is given : f — 



In the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay and the great Lake 

 Mistassinni, the trees which, some degrees farther south, form 

 the mass of the forest, have almost entirely disappeared in this 

 latitude, in consequence of the severity of the winters and the 

 sterility of the soil. The whole country is cut up by thousands 

 of lakes, and covered with enormous rocks piled one on the top 

 of the other, which are often carpeted with large lichens of a 

 black colour, and which increase the sombre aspect of these 

 desert and almost uninhabitable regions. It is in the spaces 

 between the I'ocks that one finds a few pine (Pinus rupestris), 

 which attain an altitude of three feet, and even at this small 

 height show signs of decay. However, 150 miles farther south, 

 this tree acquires a better and stronger growth, but it never 

 rises higher than eight or ten feet. 



Michaux enumerates the following trees and plants in 



* Kelatiun des Jesuiles. 



t Voi/(ii/c (f Andre Michaux en Canada dcjiia's Ic Lac Cltanrphiin jasqita 

 hi Bate d'Hudsmi. Tar O. Brunet. Quebec, 1861. 



